FAQ

At TechDesign, our eService team helps TechDesign members turn their electronic concepts into hardware reality. Our eService team is comprised of professionals who have had extensive experience in the electronics supply chain. Our eService consultants and project managers help our clients jumpstart their hardware projects either by leveraging proven hardware solutions or by working with verified suppliers to build something completely new.

We can help manage and find suitable suppliers for projects at any stage of the product development cycle. It's preferable to have a clear scope of the services you’d like to request. In general, you should already have a prototype and be focused on a specific design service, such as industrial design or software development. You may outsource a range of designs such as circuit design, printed circuit board (PCB) layout, PCB printing, solution design, PCB assembly, mechanical design, or industrial design, to suitable suppliers on the TechDesign platform.

A hardware solution is a design previously implemented by the supplier that can be customized for a similar project, such as your own. It could be a demo kit, a sub-system module or an off-the-shelf product. Some suppliers may provide product samples for their solutions. You can buy the sample, and then decide whether to further customize your project.

The suppliers that we work with can provide the full range of services required throughout the hardware development process. These services include circuit design, PCB layout, mechanical design, industrial design, firmware/software development, 3D printing, PCB printing, mechanical manufacturing and product assembly.

Our experts will assess the feasibility of your product concept, development cost, and delivery schedule to provide trusted advice. As the specification becomes clear, then we can proceed to finding suitable suppliers.

It's free to register and submit your project quotation request. After your request is submitted, suppliers who can provide the services you need will provide quotations based on your requirements. You will be requested to make the payment when you accept the quotation, after which your project can start. Your payment will be kept in an escrow account until you approve the deliverables at each payment milestone. Only then do we release the money to the supplier.

If the supplier is interested in your project, TechDesign will notify you and bridge you to the supplier for basic requirements clarification. We will then provide a discussion function for both parties to discuss the detailed specification.

When you submit a request, the request information will be disclosed to suitable suppliers. We highly recommend that you enable the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in the request function, and that you wait for the supplier to sign the NDA before you disclose more detailed information to them through the discussion function.

It is not absolutely required; you decide whether to use the NDA with suppliers. We suggest you consider the nature of your project and its requirements when you decide. TechDesign provides an NDA template if you do not have your own.

Please kindly wait for our hardware development experts to reach out to you. They will align with you on the project details and begin reaching out to suitable suppliers for discussion. You can check on your request status by visiting the “Buyer dashboard” (https://techdesign.com/dashboard/buyer/requests) (shown below) and clicking on “My Project Quotation”. The status shows your project stage. You can also edit or terminate the project via “Actions” in this page. Once you accept any of the quotations, you can start tracking your project at “My projects” - payment and milestone tracking will be completed here. Once completed, you can find your project and purchase history in “My orders”.

You can click on the thumbs up to add a hardware solution to your “Favorite Solutions” and it will be stored on your “Buyer dashboard”. Additionally, you can submit a project request using a customizable or off-the-shelf solution to get a quotation.

In order to become a verified supplier, you will need to first register as a user on our website, then click on the “Become Supplier” option under the top right icon on the TechDesign.com website. Our team will then reach out to you to begin the verification process. You can find the link here: (https://www.techdesign.com/become-supplier?suppliertype=service)